Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jacob n.1

[the biblical story of Jacob’s ladder]

1. (UK Und.) a thief who uses a ladder.

[UK]Thief-Catcher 25: There are another Sort of Rogues called Jacobs; these go with Ladders in the Dead of the Night, and get in at the Windows, one, two or three a pair-of-Stairs and sometimes down the Area.

2. (UK Und.) a ladder.

[UK]Hell Upon Earth 5: Jacob, a Ladder.
[UK]C. Hitchin Regulator 20: A Jacob, alias Ladder.
[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 37: The second Floor Windows; which are often got into by the Help of a Jacob; that is, a Ladder.
[UK](con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: A Jacob A Ladder.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving 26: The second floor windows, which are often got into by a Jacob, that is, a ladder.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]Sporting Mag. Apr. XXII 54/1: ‘An please your honour [...] for prigging a Jacob from a dunger-dan-ding-drag.’ [...] Prigging is to steal, a Jabob, is a ladder; and a dunger dan-ding-drag, a night cart.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II ii: Holloa! you had better mind what you are at with your jacob.
[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
[UK]Flash Mirror 20: Peter Smutto [...] has entered his old flag of the Jacob and Drag, and he now does his business under the cognomen of the Bucket and Dunnaken.
[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 123/1: Jacob, a ladder.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Oct. 1/3: ‘That’s the man we want [...] on to the ladder.’ [...] ‘Not so fast,’ said Forky [...] ‘this Jacob was invented for gentlemen like me, not for scrubbers like you’.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 145: A high flight of new steps, steep as those of a ship’s hold, and known to the lodgers as ‘Jacob’s ladder’.
[US]Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jacob, a ladder.
[US] ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 451: Jacob, A ladder.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[Ire]J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 110: Men who were not burglars nevertheless habitually used words like stick, jacob, swag, peter, groin, when they meant jemmy, ladder, bundle, safe or ring.
[UK] (ref. to 1930s–70s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 206: Jacob’s – Ladder.

3. the penis [it ‘climbs up’ the vagina].

[UK] ‘Cumnock Psalms’ in Bold (1979) 62: He placed his Jacob where she did piss, / And his ballocks where the wind did blaw.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US] ‘The Oaks of Jimderia’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 223: God bless this white belly and curly black hair, / The rod of old Jacob may here lose its seed, / But a cunt that lies gaping shall ne’er gape in need.

4. (UK und.) any form of staircase.

[UK]letter 28 Dec. in Pierce Egan’s Life in London (10 Apr. 1825) 83/2: [L]ittle Davy, who is no dirt, stood at the bottom of the Jacob (stair-case), with the parlour poker in his hand.